I’m really enjoying the story far! Intriguing plot, likeable characters, and well written/paced. I cannot wait for more!
2 Likes
Minor update! Made some changes:
- Expanded R’s scene in the chapter 2 autumn festival. Now you can have a proper conversation and even flirt a bit! (Or attempt to antagonize. They’re a hard one to annoy, though, so good luck.)
- Changed up the auras of Arren and the tabby-cat-fae for clarity and to better suit their personalities.
- Changed gender variables to numerical for ease of coding (can’t remember why I didn’t do this in the first place… temporary insanity?)
- Fixed variables for asexual option in chapter 1
- Misc typo/grammar corrections
Also, kinda curious… did anyone make a deal with Arren at the end of the chapter?
12 Likes
This bit was unintentionally hilarious:
You retrieve a bit of charcoal from inside and head towards a different patch of wall. There, you dig out some snow and write a new protective ward. You don’t want to put it in the same place as before, not if there really was fowl should be foul play involved.
Other than that this thing seems promising, rather unique way to do magic all things considered.
No, my mc really doesn’t trust him.
2 Likes
Whoops! 
How very bird-brained of me. Thanks for pointing that out.
Yeah, that’s probably the route most people will choose. Not trusting him is probably the sensible choice… but that won’t stop me from writing the fun scenarios that could occur should you decide to trust him anyway!
5 Likes
This game is so good, not to mention how unique the story is.
I have a question though: how do I get the Hermit interaction? Because in my first playthrough, I got the Hermit to answer my call, but now it was some robe-wearing spirit from another country.
2 Likes
The spirit you meet is decided by whether you decide to use the cards right away (robed spirit) or after you’ve learned some protective wards (Hermit). The idea is that the protective ward calls specifically for a benevolent spirit, which ends up being the Hermit.
The robed spirit, while not malevolent, is more cynical and somewhat mischievous, and she approaches when you don’t have any wards up.
As an aside: I originally had it more randomized as to who would appear. But then I wasn’t sure it would actually improve gameplay, so that’s how it ended up as is. 
12 Likes
I did.
2 Likes
Is the itch.io and dashingdon versions different?
Yes, and uh, whoops. The itch.io was not meant to go live. 
I was just trying to test out some things. Clearly, I need to pay more attention when I do. Sorry for the confusion, y’all.
8 Likes
Soooo along with the rewriting I’m doing on the first chapter, I’ve also been playing with redesigning the title to make it more Celtic. What do you think?
Current Logo:
Celtic Version:
- Current Version
- Celtic Version
- I like the Celtic idea, but the actual new version is a mess
- Why are you wasting time on logos instead of writing?!
- Other
0 voters
7 Likes
Thanks all for voting in the poll! The feedback really helped. I’ll keep the logo as is for now. The prologue has been rewritten and latched onto chapter one, and the third chapter is almost ready. Just need to fill out some choices and give it a good proofreading.
6 Likes
I like the new chapter and is really tempted to accept Arren deal to try and outwit him so I can potentially gain something bigger.
But I’m not sure I have the stats for it. I understood that every of the stats was important because it seemed like you would need intuition to sense if something was wrong, mediation to deal with supernaturals, and concentration to solve the problems that would come up from the latter two. I didn’t get the feeling that it was one of those IF where it’s better to focus on one or two stats. So mine where spread out as evenly as possible with mediation being the strongest at the demo end.
I wished that choices showed which stats they increased. (I also had no idea that the concentration stat was basically the intellect one. I had to look it up whereas intuition and mediation sounded more obvious.) I also kept going back and save scumming because the game told me that I didn’t have enough of this and that. Thinking that it meant I couldn’t do it at all. I mean maybe it’s because I’m used to other game saying that as a way to tell the player that their action is/will result in a failure. I have minmaxer tendencies though. So me going back and forth to check what changed about my stats may just have been me.
I like the personality system you have in place. Few game allow you to be an ambivert and there is a lot of variation. I remarked it can change, will it be only for this chapter ? Or will you lock it in later. How important will be they be in the future ?
1 Like
I made a deal. It seemed the more interesting route. I also reasoned that although there was the possibility of problems with him, it kept the cards safe from every other kind of harm, theft, loss or discovery. 
1 Like
[quote=“Asterya1, post:33, topic:128213”]
I like the new chapter and is really tempted to accept Arren deal to try and outwit him so I can potentially gain something bigger.
But I’m not sure I have the stats for it. I understood that every of the stats was important because it seemed like you would need intuition to sense if something was wrong, mediation to deal with supernaturals, and concentration to solve the problems that would come up from the latter two. I didn’t get the feeling that it was one of those IF where it’s better to focus on one or two stats. So mine where spread out as evenly as possible with mediation being the strongest at the demo end.[/quote]
Having more balanced stats can help, but I’m also trying to keep the stat checks somewhat “easy” since I want the focus to be on the story, and not so much on worrying over stats or which is the “right” choice. Dunno how well that comes across tho 
There is a game toggle, actually!
If you switch it on, then it will notify you of which stats increase after making a choice. You can only turn it on at the beginning, though, so maybe I should make an option to switch it on or off on the stats page.
Is this the part when you’re reading the cards for the first time? Because it is impossible to have all choices available on a single run-through - but each path, whether the intuition, concentraion, or mediation path, has its own unique flavor. Even if you can’t go the intuition or concentration paths, summoning a spirit guide is always available, and can be a lot of fun. It’s also fairly easy if you have a 15+ mediation.
The personality can change throughout the story, and I don’t have any plans atm to lock it in. Mostly it’s there for flavor, but may also change how others treat or perceive you.
Yessssss, mwahaha! You are correct on that last front. There are possible benefits to making the deal with Arren.
And I will go back to writing instead of saying more because there may also be some drawbacks down the line. Pros and cons with everything!
2 Likes
Ah yeah I took that option. Sorry should have been more precise that I meant showing the stats increase before you take the option. Like which stat it raise is marked right next to the text choice in () If that make sense ?
1 Like
Oh, whoops! Sorry, I see what you mean now. I could certainly add that as an option if enough people are interested. I could see some not liking it, but maybe if I made it so the (add to intuition/whatever) in the choices only appears if the game toggle is on, so as not to break immersion for non-toggle players.
4 Likes
@KLou if you add it as a toggle option I see no point in people complaining if they have the choice to just not use it
1 Like
Major update! New chapter and rewritten parts of early chapters, which resulted in the former prologue and chapters 1-2 being turned into chapters 1-3. It’s not a huge change to the story overall, but there are some significant tweaks to improve things.
Detailed summary of updates:
- Deleted the prologue, started chapter one earlier, and split the former chapter one into two so it’s not overly long. (About 5k words of new content at the beginning with more interaction with your family.)
- Added a new chapter (22k words total). (Only one. It just looks like more because of the aforementioned rewrites.)
- Renamed PC’s hometown; it’s now called Blackthorn.
- Renamed the Beyond to the Otherworld.
- Gave a bit more flavor to the setting. Put in a mention of local dishes (based on traditional Irish cooking) and the autumn festival from chapter 2 (now chapter 3) is now called Autumnsmeet, with a bit of ritual inspired by the Celtic celebration for the beginning of harvest, Lúnasa.
- Made tweaks to how psychic “magic” is referred to; rather than “castings,” they’re now called spells or sigils.
- Added a variable, “suitaffinity,” to the startup. It was already present in the Stats page, but I wanted to use it a bit more in the game itself. You can see an example of this playing out in the new chapter, where there’s a spot the PC can have a difference response based on which suit(s) they have the most affinity with (Cups, Pentacles, Swords, or Wands). This part is a bit more experimental, so let me know what you think.
22 Likes
I look forward to reading the update, eventually, when I can. 
3 Likes